Creative Assembly seems as excited about the Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires factions as we are, as we managed to get a few members of the dev team to talk about their favorite Immortal Empires starting positions on the combined map.
Bringing together a decade’s worth of Total War development, Immortal Empires will represent the ultimate Warhammer fantasy strategy gaming experience. Whether you’re leading classic factions like Bretonnia or The Empire, or newcomers like Kislev and Cathay, the Immortal Empires map will give you the ultimate sandbox to revel in your fantasy of choice. Just try not to get lost sailing those sea lanes.
Alberic of Bordeaux of Bretonnia
William Wright (Senior Designer)
Picture this: After decades of carefully ruling your dukedom, you finally have some free time and head to sunny Lustria to get some rest. You step off the boat, dreaming of drinking piña coladas from the Grail itself, only to discover that the complex has been invaded by dinosaurs with solar-powered laser guns.
Alberic’s campaign not only leans into the absurd potential of the Warhammer world, it is effectively Monty Python meets the Holy Grail with Jurassic Park, and also highlights the emergent storytelling that is at the core of the Immortal Empires experience. Whatever happens, there will almost certainly be a new crisis for you to deal with: a duke’s work is never done!
Drycha of the Wood Elves
Ben Leech (Designer)
Do you like trees? and i mean Really like the trees? I like trees, so I’ve been playing on the Drycha leaf for a day. In the old days, only the tree spirits ran the show at Athel Loren, but ever since the elves arose, things haven’t been so rosy. Away from Athel Loren, Drycha plans a birch and rescue operation to free his master, the Ancient Treeman Coeddil, from his prison in Wildwood.
There’s never a dull moment when it comes to defending the glades, which means keeping some pesky rats from trying to make all things wooden come to an end. Drycha is not beating around the bush, so it will soon be time to address the rest of the world. More clearings have been added around the map in IE, which means more chances for a good spot to plant around the map. Not too much mulch to handle for Drycha though. My rating on your campaign: Blooming beautifully.
Lokhir Fellheart of the Dark Elves
Anuji Malhotra (Designer)
Yo ho, a pirate’s life to me, we extort and rob, rob and loot. Step aside from the Vampire Coast, it’s time to unfurl my black flag and don my Sea Dragon Cloak, a true pirate is on deck! I recently had a blast with Lokhir Fellheart in Immortal Empires.
The Krakenlord has an eye for good loot, choosing his starting position wisely on the east coast of faraway Grand Cathay. Your Black Arks are invaluable in Immortal Empires, as the wide rivers and canal networks that weave their way through the Cathayan heartland allow Lokhir to penetrate inland, almost as far as the Great Maw, while reaping the benefits of ridding an amphibious war.
Then, our Arks sailing low in the water overloaded with the riches of the East, we rush out into the open ocean. With three easily accessible sea lanes and a dark elf speed boost when traveling those sea lanes, the world is truly Lokhir’s oyster. I’m looking forward to sailing the bloody seas, indeed turning the entire bloody world of Warhammer around, in a long and fruitful campaign. A pirate’s life for me!
Deathmaster Snikch of the Skaven
James Martin (Senior Designer)
To me, a campaign like Clan Eshin is essentially ‘A Plague Tale: Cathay’. Starting in the Xing Po region, you’re surrounded by people who won’t be too happy to see an infestation of rats. It is from here that my great underground empire will spread and consume the east before it begins to push west through the Mountains of Mourn.
I still have my Biker Mice From Mars toys in the attic, so seeing rats riding bikes and fighting bad guys is awesome, and that’s obviously why I love playing Skaven now. Even if Snikch isn’t as much of a leader as Throttle or as strong as Modo, to me, he’s always been as cool as Vinnie, looking to take on bigger enemies by himself and destroy them. I already have my endgame army ready; the charge will be led by some real Biker Mice in Doomwheels and Doom-Flayers, closely followed by my hidden army with Snikch, some Assassins, Death Runners and Gutter Runners. Many outline plans to enact, let’s begin, yes, yes!
Grombrindal of the Dwarves
William Hakestad (Designer)
Grombrindal is a relatively simple campaign, with no broad mechanical framework to propel me forward, no strict narrative to follow. Just me, an angry dwarf, and more importantly, a starting unit of Irondrakes. While the idea of taking the fight to Malekith from the Dark Elves and resolving one of the oldest grudges in the book is tempting, my heart asks for one thing, above all else: burning the skaven.
With a series of rat-ridden mountains between Malekith and me, I am engaged in a ferocious campaign to burn every last Raki between here and Naggarond to ashes. Settlement layouts in Warhammer III create a grueling grind for most dwarven units, one that are well equipped to slowly make their way through, but the Irondrake stands to benefit the most.
My rancor fueled rampage against the Skaven ends up sparking something with Malekith. By crushing our mutual enemy so thoroughly, and with Valkia closing in from the north, we have enough mutual respect to put aside the oldest grudge, if only for a single battle.
Archaon the Chosen, Warriors of Chaos
Mitchell Heastie (Lead Designer)
How could he not choose the Chosen One himself? The ultimate villain of Warhammer fantasy has shone since Warhammer I and II, and now he is poised to become the true leader of Chaos. The new Warriors of Chaos update allows him to assemble a truly absurd assortment of nightmarish growlers and devoted multicolored mortals to become the true doomsday threat he was always meant to be.
But it’s the constraints as much as the possibilities that make the campaign great. Because you need to create synergies between your commanders and their units, and you can only get elite units by promoting your veterans, each army you build will develop its own theme and story. It truly feels like the closest we’ve come to replicating the satisfaction of building and painting your own Chaos army on the tabletop, something that is uniquely yours.
Nakai the Wanderer, Lizardmen
Al Bickham (Senior Development Communications Manager)
If this is your first time breaking the Immortal Empires seal, may I recommend Kroxigor chungusaurus Nakai the Wanderer as your traveling companion? Especially since there’s an inordinate amount of wandering around this megamap if you so choose.
Nakai offers a hyper mobile, light infrastructure style of play. When you take a settlement, you hand it over directly to your AI-controlled permanent vassals who provide you with coins each turn for each settlement you give them, and then jog off to the next conquest. Nakai has his own Horde recruitment infrastructure that he develops as he goes, so in short, he’s the freest lord in the game.
His new starting position at the southeasternmost point of the map means Nakai has his back to the wall from day one, with the entire map in front of him to explore. The nomadic nature of Nakai also means that you can enjoy the variety of fights across almost every race and in every environment in the game.
Balthasar Gelt of the Empire
Nicolás Graber (Senior Designer)
What’s better than the smell of napalm in the morning? If that’s your kind of style, the man in the mask (not you, Lokhir) is still one of the best options to go for, despite only being introduced in 2016.
Initially, you’ll have to deal with a greenskin raid, but steel, faith, and gunpowder will help you with that, and then you’ll have to consider all the other threats as well. This race quickly becomes a game of balancing diplomacy and protecting the Empire from threats from within and without.
My top priority is usually making use of our quick deal feature to ensure that as many factions of the Empire as possible are aligned where the real danger is coming from. This campaign really conveys the feeling of a great human empire under siege from all sides, struggling to survive in this brutal fantasy world.
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Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires release date is August 24 as a free update alongside the Champions of Chaos expansion, the first official DLC for Warhammer 3 to be released post-launch. Immortal Empires will initially be released in a ‘beta’ state and will iterate over time. Hopefully the developers have inspired you who you want to pick when the big campaign rolls around, but if not, there’s plenty more to choose from!
